%0 Journal Article
%T Diagnostic performance of CareStart  malaria HRP2/pLDH (Pf/pan) combo test versus standard microscopy on falciparum and vivax malaria between China-Myanmar endemic borders
%A Xiaodong Sun
%A Tambo Ernest
%A Chun Wei
%A Zhibin Cheng
%J Malaria Journal
%D 2013
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2875-12-6
%X Background Rapid diagnostic test (RDT) is becoming an alternative way of establishing quickly the diagnosis of malaria infections, by detecting specific malaria antigens in suspected patients¡¯ blood between the China-Myanmar endemic borders areas, towards achieving the National Malaria Elimination programme by 2020. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of CareStart  Malaria Pf/Pan RDT kit for the diagnosis of malaria infections in suspected patients. Blood examination by microscopy was taken as gold standard to evaluate CareStart  kit¡¯s sensitivity, specificity and predictive value and corrected with PCR assay. Results Overall 126 of 241 (52.28%) malaria cases were detected by microscopy compared to 115 of 241(47.72%) CareStart  kit and 128 of 241 (53.11%) PCR corrected assay. CareStart  kit¡¯s sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of malaria were 89.68% and 98.26% respectively, compared to standard microscopy, whereas the sensitivity and specificity for falciparum malaria were 88.52% and 98.26%, and for vivax malaria: 90.77% and 100%. The CareStart  positive predictive values were 98.26% (93.88-99.52%, 95% CI) compared to 100% (96.77-100%, 95% CI) for PCR-corrected, and the negative predictive values of 89.68% (83.15-93.87%, 95% CI) were the same in microscopy as PCR-corrected. The diagnostic accuracy of CareStart  kit versus microscopy and PCR were 93.78% (89.99-96.19%, 95% CI) and 94.61% (90.99-96.82%, 95% CI) respectively. The likelihood of diagnostic of malaria positive was almost similar between microscopy and CareStart  kit, with an entropy reduction of 60.0% compared to a weak likelihood of misdiagnosis of 0.10 (0.09-0.12, 95% CI), with an entropy reduction of 36.01%. Conclusion The accuracy of CareStart  kit is comparable to gold standard microscopy in these areas, it is easy to perform and suitable for cross-border diagnosis and monitoring of local or imported malaria patterns by any local health staff in endemic remotes.
%K CareStart
%K Diagnostic
%K Malaria
%K Microscopy
%K Performance
%K Plasmodium
%K Standard
%U http://www.malariajournal.com/content/12/1/6